POSTAL workers in St Ann and sections of Trelawny recently celebrated World Post Day by feting residents of the St Ann Infirmary who could hardly contain their excitement at being given the opportunity to sing, dance and share their life experiences with the visitors.

Semone Bryan, regional inspector for the postal service, said the postal services usually treat pensioners to commemorate the day. However, this year the group in St Ann wanted to give back in a different way.

“Every year we have been feeding our pensioners, but this year we wanted to do something different,” Bryan said.

She explained that the staff contributed to the purchasing of the care packages which were also presented to the residents.

“All the items were contributed by staff,” Bryan stressed.

World Post Day is celebrated each year on October 9 to commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in the Swiss cityl, Berne in 1874. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1969.

The purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in everyday life and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries.

Postal services in Jamaica pre-date the start of the annual observance of World Post Day.

It was on October 31, 1671 — 342 years ago — that Jamaica became the first British colony to have established a post office. Since then, the postal service in Jamaica has grown to become the island’s largest communication network divided into 11 regions across the island.

Today, postal services have evolved and the local post says it is taking advantage of opportunities to provide commercial services to the public alongside the traditional social and postal services.